Sorbus domesticus/ Lecitinum/ Aristolochia clematis in a one case

de Maarten van der Meer

A 40-year-old woman with a frozen shoulder which developed after a sports injury. She also suffers a lot from PMS. She’s emotional and very much ‘clearing away things’ all the time. She tends to run herself down and has in general little confidence in herself, especially around the period of the menses. Then she feels worthless and assumes her husband also thinks she’s worthless. During these days she reacts sharp toward her partner. She then feels as if the marriage is over, out of a feeling of insecurity about herself and by his introversion.“It is also an old pain, I’ve let too many things happen, I’ve effaced myself in the role of a mother and during my husband’s illness. He’s been home for a long period because he was unable to work. I’m interested in my husband, but he’s less interested in me. He cannot show his emotions: “until here, and don’t come any closer”, that’s the way he is. I have dark thoughts and I hesitate about our relationship. I often think that he doesn’t want me anymore. The spontaneous and sparkling parts in our relation have disappeared.”

The relation with her father was difficult. He was an immigrant with a traumatic war past. He was silent and there wasn’t much contact. “I could understand him, but I couldn’t express myself toward him, neither could he toward me. I was not allowed to express myself, and have my own opinion. If I used to be open and spontaneous, it was not “appropriate”. I always tried to control myself.

The home situation of reticence and emotional distance was made worse after her brother died of a heart attack.“I’m spontaneous, enjoyable, social, have social hobbies, work with people. I all do it for the sociability, and also for the provision of services.”

She looks compliant, making space in the contact by a sort of awaiting openness. Under this attitude is a sort of jumpiness, as if she has difficulties in suppress her tendency to react and to be enthusiastic.
She suffers from cold feet and an irregular heart beat which she calls “roffeltjes” (=little rollings).

Analysis
The themes are clear: partner, mental restlessness, self-effacing in the form of giving love, old pain which is kept inside, hereditary heart pathology. A shoulder complaint after a fall but recovery is, despite manual therapy, so slow that there is probably a predisposition for problems in the shoulder region. Concomitant cold feet and irregular heart beat. She often shows a foolish look, as if happily surprised and at the same time not completely understanding what’s being discussed (characteristic of stage 4). The distance that there used to be between her father and herself, is now coming back in the caring for her partner who is also introverted.

Prescription: Sorbus domesticus

The atmosphere is quickly improving, is manageable, and doesn’t give tension at home anymore. After a month this problem is solved for her. Cold feet and palpitations immediately disappear. As the sensitivity for the feeling of being cut off seems to come from childhood, I expected the remedy should be administered for a long time. The shoulder however remains the same and she’s describing another pattern of complaints. “I’m still looking for inner peace. Could you help me with that? There still is a lot of restlessness inside; agility, a neurotic feeling, clumsiness as knocking over things. I’m impatient and want everything very quickly.” The result of this is that she cannot wait, she passes herself over and does everything at the last minute. This also is a thread in her life with which she has learned to live. By making prescriptions according to the plant systematic, it frequently happens that the complaint immediately disappears, or that the problem simply has disappeared. The sensitivity is gone. Because of this, a month after the Sorbus, a new remedy has been given on the remaining symptoms with a good result.

The typical restlessness in combination with a long and thin body and a fast growth, as in this woman, is characteristic for Lecitinum (as presented by Louis Klein, who has presented in pantomime the restlessness of Lecitinum in a reliable way).

Prescription: Lecitinum

Quickly she feels more relaxed, more loose. The frozen shoulder has ameliorated. She’s not so hurried anymore. She still is a bit moody around menses, but she doesn’t express it. She’s more satisfied.
After a few months, the moods are back and her husband is the one who has to pay for it. She now also is awake for a long time and very clear from 1.30-3.30h.

Based on experiences I will only exceptionally repeat a remedy. The policy is to wait and closely evaluate the improvement, or to administer a new prescription as soon as a new picture is showing.
Repeating the remedy, in my opinion, has no additional value if the remedy is working well.
Waiting is at the same time a check whether a light fall-back means a little (the medicine is still appropriate and is still working) or an insurmountable barrier (a more appropriate remedy is necessary, by means of which this barrier can be crossed, or a new pathology is present, or a new cause).
As soon as the fall-back show another medicine picture with other themes, or a picture that is dependent of other factors, or if it seems to be an isolated problem, you can adjust the prescription after differentiation with the former remedy. Although this way of working, may be a pitfall when a good working remedy still has a lot to improve (which is not always clear for the patient and the homeopath), I think you can win time with this method.

Based on this policy, the next prescription was :
Prescription: Aristolochia clematis

The reaction was clear. For a week she had the feeling to be outside the family and she saw everything very pessimistic. Jokes were not appreciated, she couldn’t laugh with it. All remarks were interpreted negative and too personal. “I place myself outside of it. It was as if everything happened outside yourself.”

(a characteristic of the Magnoliales: this could be a test symptom, but as she’s improved by the remedy, it’s more probable that this is a feeling that was already present unconscious from her youth and family situation).

Bad sleep as before with worrying. “As soon as I was sitting alone downstairs and the children were in their rooms, I felt empty and dominated by the thought “Is this my life?”.
After these days she became more relaxed. She describes this as “no emotional moods anymore, not reacting sharp”. Afterward she’s also able to make decisions she couldn’t take before. Self-confidence and decisiveness have obviously improved. The following months she does all the work for the family with success. She feels inner peace. After four months she still feels she’s improving and she names a family pattern, with which she’s been struggling for years, of a negative self-image: you may not attract attention or distinguish yourself.

The feeling behind this is “What am I good at, I’m only being there, the others are experienced and have studied”. Although she functions good in social life and gets appreciation from her environment, this feeling stays present. Before she sometimes thought of a proposal, but she didn’t do anything with it. She was afraid to perform it.

Already during her youth, she wanted to succeed in what she did from the beginning. At the least hesitation she stopped and she didn’t make any efforts anymore. It didn’t matter that you didn’t manage, it wouldn’t work out anyway (compare with Cerium). Now she has managed to control this hesitation and the reaction pattern that is the result of this hesitation. It still takes some effort, but it’s improving. The sleep is still interrupted sometimes, now at 2 am. And if dreams, they are about not passing an examination. The feeling in the dream is: “why didn’t you study better? If you had done your best, you would have been able to pass the exam easily”. During her youth, her parents really looked up to students, and also criticized a lot: “We were simple souls. It was all too difficult for us.” As immigrants from another country and another culture, the parents didn’t really feet at home in the Netherlands. She defines this as feeling herself still half-breed.

The working of Sorbus has been convincing for the problems that belong to the Rosacea theme. Afterwards, complaints developed from the physical predisposition have disappeared (Lecitinum works on connective tissue and the nerves. The reaction on Lecitinum has been mostly vegetative and on the physiology. Restlessness can also have a physiological cause, over-stimulated nerves).
Also complaints related to personal development, possibly transferred from the parents, have been cured. Aristolochiaceae, as a subgroup of the Magnoliales, have as theme having lost the roots of your existence, feeling lost, being confused, react hysterically as a compensation. The things which were only visible at a non-verbal level and was present only on an unconscious level before the remedy was given, appeared literally in the consciousness after the remedy was taken. It appeared as an unreal feeling and dissolved afterward metaphorical.

The painful spot has disappeared, the theme is no restriction anymore in her life. The inner and outer world are “clean” and the medicine is not needed anymore.